Matt ElliottCouncil is back. In a moment of intrigue, Mayor Olivia Chow moves to re-open an item related to speed cameras. "I have an update," she says. They'll come back to it later. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.8
Councillor Lily Cheng announces the 2025 Council Secret Santa. She says they'll all exchange gifts on the first day of Council in December. 'Tis the season.
Wow: big news here. Mayor Olivia Chow has a motion to dissolve the Toronto Parking Authority board. If this passes, there will be a "thorough operational review" of TPA. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.17
Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to prioritize clearing encampments near daycares and schools within 48 hours gets added to the agenda after a 20-6 vote. They'll debate it later. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.4
Councillor James Pasternak's motion to support an MZO that'd greatly limit the potential for new housing near a pharma plant on Steeles West gets added to the agenda with a 23-2 vote. Moise holds it for debate. They'll come back to it. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.11
Back to the neighbourhood retail item. Councillor Paula Fletcher wants to use the overhead machine. She displays a photo of a local store in her ward, Woodfield Grocery. She points to the "Store Since 1920's" sign. Well-loved for over 100 years, she says.
Councillor Holyday has revised his motion on neighbourhood stores. Instead of a total restriction on retail on major street areas zoned as residential in his ward, he is proposing restrictions on a long list of specific streets.
Councillor Jamaal Myers moves a couple of motions:
- Remove new retail permissions on Brimley Road in his ward.
- Conduct more "meaningful consultation" and look at ways business licensing can address concerns re: neighbourhood retail.
Councillor Jamaal Myers says some people want nieghbourhood retail, but others might "already have enough retail. And they don't want to live next to a convenience store, and that's perfectly OK as well."
After formally introducing his motions, Councillor Gord Perks calls the process that led to these compromises on neighbourhood retail "collegial but complicated." He's added a few more clauses.
"Some members of council have said there are two Torontos: downtown and the suburbs. And that's not true," says Perks. "There aren't two Torontos — there's one Toronto, with 200 neighbourhoods." He says this process required "fine-grained work" to meet the needs of those neighbourhoods.
Time to vote. Councillor Shan's motion to exclude three streets in his ward from the expanded retail permissions on major streets FAILS 9-17.
Holyday's motion to exclude a whole bunch of major streets in his ward from the new retail permissions FAILS 10-16.
Perks' motion to exclude a long list of major streets across the city from the expanded retail permissions CARRIES 25-1.
Mayor Olivia Chow's motion to allow neighbourhood corner stores in all wards in the Old Toronto & East York Community Council area CARRIES 25-1.
The mayor's motion to keep confidential legal advice confidential CARRIES 25-1. He's just mashing that "No" button now.
Myers' motion to conduct more consultation and look at ways business licensing can ease concerns about local retail CARRIES 25-1.
The neighbourhood retail report as amended CARRIES 23-2.
Toronto Council votes to permit corner stores in all Old Toronto & East York wards, and expands permission for retail on some (but not all) major streets city-wide.
Changing gears, Mayor Olivia Chow brings Lisa Duncan, Director of Collections and Litter Operations, to the lectern. Duncan is retiring after 35 years at city hall. "Her work has made Toronto a cleaner and more liveable city," says Chow. Duncan gets a standing O.
After a quick debate, Councillor Paula Fletcher's motion asking Metrolinx to provide GPS tracking for all trucks working on the Ontario Line and better communication with residents CARRIES 25-0. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.EX27.3
Up now: the City would like to close a gap on the Humber Trail, but the path winds through the Weston Golf Club. The golf club is not happy about this. They submitted this graphic showing the path of the trail and 1954 flood damage caused by Hurricane Hazel. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.GG25.15
Councillor Burnside doesn't really want to hear any more about this golf club stuff. He calls the question, moving to skip the rest of the speakers and proceed straight to the vote. That FAILS 14-9. It needed two-thirds. The golf talk continues.
On the Humber Trail / Golf Course item, Councillor Holyday moves for a report on an "alternate design" for the trail that would go around the golf course property.
After several councillors argue that this trail design was already approved years ago, Holyday's motion to look at an alternative alignment for the Humber Trail past the Weston Golf Club FAILS 4-21.
Council votes 22-3 to APPROVE the plan to continue negotiations with the Weston Golf Club re: acquiring land for the Humber Trail, with authorization to initiate expropriations if necessary.
Up now: on the speed camera item, Mayor Olivia Chow has a motion requesting Premier Doug Ford cover the cost of programs that were previously funded by speed camera revenue, including the crossing guard program and the salaries of 18 police officers. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.8
"Starting tomorrow, 1,000 people could lose their jobs," says Mayor Olivia Chow, including over 900 crossing guards, because the city won't be able to collect revenue from speed cameras after a provincial bill banning them. The ban also takes money away from capital projects like traffic calming.
Chow's motion requesting the province cover the full cost of crossing guards, police officers, and road safety improvements previously paid for by speed camera revenue CARRIES 25-0.
Up now: starting Jan 1, your recycling will be collected by a private company, not the City of Toronto. Council is pretty concerned that the new company, Circular Materials, is not ready for this transition. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.2
Fletcher's motion on the blue bins isn't ready yet, so council jumps over to an item about the Allen & Eglinton intersection. Councillor Bradford wants to give a speech about the importance of fixing the design of the intersection to relieve traffic congestion. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.6
Councillor Mike Colle laments the traffic at the Eglinton & Allen intersection, but says there's no quick fix.
"And you know what's going to exasperate it even more? The lunatic provincial government is going to allow 30 towers of condominiums along the Allen Road!"
Jumping back to the blue bins, Councillor Fletcher passes a motion asking the new company collecting recycling provide some extra trucks to handle the extra cardboard & such produced over the holidays.
"Fasten your seatbelts, colleagues, because I think it's going to be a rough ride," she adds.
Council nearly loses quorum during a debate about whether they should ask people to refrain from using two-stroke gas-powered lawn equipment like leaf blowers during days with poor air quality. I can't imagine why. It's thrilling stuff. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.IE25.13
On the lawn equipment item, Councillor Stephen Holyday moves to replace the word "possible" in this motion with "practical and feasible." Sometimes you just gotta use a leaf blower, even on high AQHI days, he explains.
Up now: Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to amend the encampment policy to prioritize the removal of camps close to schools, daycares and playgrounds within 48 hours. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.4
Bradford asks how many encampments there are currently. Staff say there are 355. 255 are located in 92 parks. 199 of them are located within 200 metres of a school, playground or daycare — about 56% of the total.
Bradford asks if the new encampment policy adopted in 2024 led to more encampments or fewer. Staff say a year ago there were 540 encampments. Today, there are 355.
"The motion as-is would not be operationally feasible for us to remove 199 encampments within 48 hours," says GM of Shelters Gord Tanner of the Bradford motion.
Perks asks the City Solicitor if she sees any issues with Bradford's motion. She does! She says the motion may run afoul of rules preventing council from directing enforcement, and could be inconsistent with a court's ruling in Waterloo Region re: encampments.
"Do we currently have enough space in our [shelter] system for everyone who is in an encampment to go?" Perks asks Shelters GM Gord Tanner.
"No," says Tanner.
"I think that's all I needed to hear," says Perks.
Councillor Lily Cheng asks if the city has ever considered establishing an area where people can legally set up encampments.
Tanner says the city has thought about it, but given how hard it's been to find shelter sites, finding land for a legal encampment area would be very tough.
Fletcher's motion would also apply a three-strikes rule: people living in encampments would be offered shelter a maximum of three times before the removal process begins.
With 15 items left on the agenda, Councillor Gord Perks moves to finish the agenda tonight. Motion to extend CARRIES 15-7.
Councillor Gord Perks wants to jump over to the TPA Board item, because he says it needs to be dealt with ASAP. But councillors Bradford and Pasternak don't want to do that. Procedural confusion! Anyway, the vote to reorder the agenda FAILS 10-10. And so chaos reigns.
Back to encampments. Councillor Chris Moise says the city's current encampment strategy is working. "In August 2025, for the first time in Toronto Centre, we had no encampments in all of our parks," he says.
"I am voting against this motion because I think it's BS," says Moise of Bradford's encampment motion. "And I just hope that somebody here will come to their senses."
"I am the father of a two- and a four-year-old. And I don't think parents should have to worry about whether it's safe or not to take their kids to the park or walk to school," says Councillor Brad Bradford.
Bradford says Fletcher's motion is a "poison pill." He says the mayor has allowed parks to be "overrun for months on end."
"Dufferin Grove used to be the example of how we had a compassionate response... that was the model. Now Dufferin Grove is the nightmare."
Pasternak moves to call the question, ending this encampment debate. That FAILS 6-14. The debate will continue until morale improves.
Councillor Gord Perks calls Bradford's speech "performative."
"Isn't it interesting that the same person who gets up and thumps the table and talks about all the harms caused by people who have lost their homes, being in encampments, has voted against building shelters," Perks says.
"You cannot in good faith stand up on Monday and say, 'Stop building shelters!' And then stand up on Thursday and say, 'Get everybody out of the encampments.' It is REPREHENSIBLE to do that," says Councillor Gord Perks of Brad Bradford's motion.
Council takes a break from the encampments item. Council is now considering a motion from Councillor James Pasternak to support an MZO that'd greatly limit the amount of housing that can be built next to a vaccine manufacturing facility on Steeles Ave. https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM34.11
Staff confirm Sanofi Pasteur, the owner of the vaccine facility, are particularly concerned about "overlook" and "corporate security." They fear if housing is built nearby, people will be able to peer over their balconies and learn trade secrets.
"Bringing an MZO forward so they can actually NOT create housing. In a housing crisis! I don't get it," says Councillor Chris Moise. He says the Sanofi plant has blacked-out windows so he doesn't buy their arguments re: trade secrets and privacy.
"Let the provincial government decide if they want to have an MZO and quash this housing. But we, as a council, should not aid them and abet them in doing so. And this is why I am voting against this. This is a FARCE," says Moise of the Sanofi MZO.
"There's widespread documentation that if this development is approved, it will dramatically compromise and impair the ability of Sanofi to do [life-saving] work," says Pasternak, the local rep. He says the proposal adjacent to the site only offers 12 new affordable units. "Not a housing bonanza."
Pasternak says if residents are allowed to move into a development next to this vaccine plant, "they will complain about noise, they will complain about odour." He says these complaints will trigger a slowdown in work at the plants.
Councillor Pasternak's motion to support an MZO restricting housing development on Steeles next to the Sanofi facility CARRIES 19-2. (That's Matlow and Moise opposed.)
Councillor Brad Bradford's motion to prioritize encampment removals based on those with the most significant impact within 150 metres of schools, daycares and playgrounds FAILS 9-10.
Councillor Fletcher's motion to prioritize encampment removals for those having a significant impact within 50 metres of a school, daycare, or playground, and to make a max of three offers of shelter, CARRIES 14-5.
